Pretty Good Pilot, Here

[Florida Cracker]

Amazing control, IMO.

https://fbstatic-a.akamaihd.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif

 

[kgruber]

Broken link

 

[frfly172]

Link not working.

 

[cwoods798]

no joy

 

[denverpilot]

Dead.

 

[flhrci]

No worky.

 

[tmyers]

Is that a picture of a zero zero takeoff in a whiteout?

 

[cowman]

 

[Florida Cracker]

Hopefully this one works.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=894479703930579

 

[flhrci]

It works! That is pretty impressive1 I would like to have one of those myself.

David

 

[N801BH]

Fuselage filled with helium..... Pretty clever.....

 

[Florida Cracker]

Fuselage filled with helium..... Pretty clever.....

I read that and thought, "What a smart guy!"

 

[Cpt_Kirk]

Helium... pretty good thinking.

 

[wanttaja]

Fuselage filled with helium...

Air is about 1.3 g/liter, helium is 0.17. You'd save about 1.1 grams per liter of volume.

Text with the video says the weight advantage is 3 ounces...that's 84 grams. The fuselage would have to be, roughly, 75 liters in volume to save that three ounces. That's about eighteen gallons... a bit bigger than a standard kitchen bag.

Probably doable, though there's probably an external keel on the fuselage and none of the electronics inside. It'd be sporty keeping the fuselage stiff (helium loves to leak) but for a ~3 minute flight demonstration probably acceptable.

Question is, did the REST of the structure have to be boosted to accommodate the inflated fuselage. The weight delta may not have been that significant.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[EminiTrader]

Cool video to wake up to. Thanks for sharing

 

[kyleb]

Air is about 1.3 g/liter, helium is 0.17. You'd save about 1.1 grams per liter of volume.

Text with the video says the weight advantage is 3 ounces...that's 84 grams. The fuselage would have to be, roughly, 75 liters in volume to save that three ounces. That's about eighteen gallons... a bit bigger than a standard kitchen bag.

Probably doable, though there's probably an external keel on the fuselage and none of the electronics inside. It'd be sporty keeping the fuselage stiff (helium loves to leak) but for a ~3 minute flight demonstration probably acceptable.

Question is, did the REST of the structure have to be boosted to accommodate the inflated fuselage. The weight delta may not have been that significant.

Ron Wanttaja

You could use the pressurized fuselage as a structural member and might save some weight that way. It worked on the Atlas rocket...

Impressive video in any case.

 

[ollopa]

Amazing control, IMO.

I don't know -- that looked like a rather wide and oval-shaped pattern to me

 

[SixPapaCharlie]

here gives some specs and you can sort of tell the body is a bag with a plastic nose capped on